Mentors: Helping with Homework

This section of the Mentor Resource Center provides articles on various topics related to supporting your mentee’s academic performance and assisting them with their schoolwork.

Helping with homework and academic skills is an important, although sometimes challenging, part of mentoring. You can help your mentee with homework and academics in a variety of different ways, either by directly working on their homework with them, helping them improve their study habits, or practicing skills that will directly improve their ability to do well on their assignments.

There are clear benefits to helping your mentee with his or her homework and academic skills, both for your mentee and for your relationship. Homework supplements and reinforces work done in school, students who put regular time and effort into doing their homework tend to do better on exams1, and doing homework improves students’ discipline, organization, and time-management skills. It also develops positive attitudes towards school and reinforces the idea that learning extends beyond the classroom. In addition, many of the skills mentees learn by working on their academics, such as organization and task management, will directly translate into future success in most jobs and life in general. On the personal side, supporting your mentee with homework gives you something to do together, provides a goal you both can work towards and celebrate, and encourages a trusting, supportive, and cohesive relationship. And of course helping your mentee succeed in school will make you feel great!

However, helping with homework isn’t always easy and its important to have realistic expectations. Mentees may feel overwhelmed and discouraged about their ability to complete their assigned work. Some may be distracted by family problems. Others may be reluctant to work on assignments they find boring, or may worry that will be teased as the “smart kid.” Even factors such as nutrition can affect a mentee’s willingness or ability to work.
While getting your mentee interested in doing homework with you might be a struggle, the consequences of not learning these important skills and falling behind on their work can be devastating. Since repetition is an important part of the learning process, students who fail to do their homework will have a weaker understanding of the material, which is likely to be reflected in lower grades and test scores. This in turn can lead to a more negative attitude towards school and lower self-esteem.

Resources:

Luckily you can help! As a mentor, you can encourage your mentee to make finishing his or her homework a priority. Articles in this section include: “Helping Your Mentee with Homework” and “Back to School” provide with tips on how to help your mentee structure their homework time. See also “Consistency and Communication,”, which will help you to discuss homework with your mentee and persuade him or her to make working on homework a consistent part of your relationship. For background information on why homework is important, check out “About Homework”. And for useful links to homework resources, tryProjectappleseed.org/homework or the Khan Academy.

Helping Your Mentee with Homework

Children need to know that their mentors think homework is important. If they know their mentors care, children have a good reason to complete assignments and to turn them in on time. You can do many things to show your mentee that you value education and homework. Here’s some tips for helping them structure their homework time at home.

Set a Regular Time for Homework
What time of day or evening does your mentee work best? Do they need to play a while first? Or after dinner? Older children may be able to set up their own schedule; elementary school children need to have their schedule set for them by their parents.

Pick a Place
Talk to your mentee about where they do their homework. A desk in the bedroom is great but for many children, the kitchen table or a corner of the living room works just fine. The area needs to have good lighting and it should be fairly quiet. Your mentee may enjoy decorating a special area for homework. A plant, a brightly colored container to hold pencils and some favorite artwork taped to the walls can make homework time more pleasant.

Remove distractions
Talk to your mentee about turning off the TV and discourage them from making and receiving social telephone calls during homework time. (A call to a classmate about an assignment, however, may be helpful.) Some children work well with quiet background music, but loud noise from the CD player, radio or TV is NOT okay. If distractions can’t be avoided, your mentee may want to complete assignments in the local library.

Set a Good Example
Show your mentee that the skills he/she is learning are an important part of the things they will do as an adult. Let them see you reading books, newspapers and computer screens; writing reports, letters, e-mails and lists; using math to balance your checkbook; doing other things that require thought and effort. Tell your mentee about what you do at work.

Be Interested and Interesting
Make time to take your mentee to the library to check out materials needed for homework and for enjoyment. Have your mentee read to you as often as possible. Ask your mentee what was discussed in class that day. Make up a calendar of when special reports or projects are due at school.